Solid Sales at Sotheby's Contemporary Art Auction
Published: May 11, 2005
Painted in October-November 1963 at the height of the screen goddess's fame, the 40-by-40 inch silkscreen portrait epitomizes glamour and celebrity. Fresh to the market since storied art dealer Irving Blum acquired it directly from the artist in 1965 for around $1,000, the painting carried a $10 million guarantee by Sotheby's, meaning Blum would get that minimum amount no matter what happened in the sale. One of thirteen works from Warhol's Colored Liz series, the saturated, almost electrified crimson background accents Taylor's voluptuous red lips and turquoise eye shadow. Masked in makeup and a perfectly coifed raven mane, the image radiates a Madonna like power. Warhol appropriated and cropped a late 1950's black-and-white publicity still of Taylor for his series. The last Colored Liz to sell at auction was at Sotheby's New York in November 2001 when another version made $3.6 million. At least four bidders chased the picture with Zurich dealer Doris Ammann the ulitmate underbidder to London's jewelry mogul Lawrence Graff, who bid via the telephone. It becomes the third most expensive Warhol to sell at auction, behind Race Riot at $15.1 million and Orange Marilyn at $17.3 million.
Highly stylized and swimming in the artist's signature array of ben day dots, this curvaceous nude is as flashy as its late owner, fashion legend Gianni Versace. Painted in 1995, and closely related to a series of generously scaled interiors completed between 1991 and the artist's death in 1997, the blonde haired nude dominates the composition. Thanks to the artist's visual pyro-techniques, the strategic placement of a painted mirror adds to the painterly allusion and 'reflects' her generous backside. The curvy, cartoon sourced figure takes on a Picasso-esque stature. Crisply composed and brilliantly executed, the painting attracted furious bidding, finally won by a client service telephone. London dealer Thomas Gibson was the underbidder.
Measuring 100 by 90 inches, this monumental head from 1971-72 hails from the artist's early series of acrylic paintings executed with a spray gun and based on mug shot like photographs of friends and family. The startling close-up of John, his piercing blue eyes squinting slightly behind wire-rim glasses and his face somewhat obscured by an unkempt beard was acquired by Chicago collectors Robert and Beatrice Mayer in 1972 from New York's Bykert Gallery for $9,000. Rare to the market, nine of the eleven works in this career-making series reside in museums. In fact, the giant head and shoulders view of John had a long sojourn at the Art Institute of Chicago before heading to market, residing there on long term loan as part of the Mayer Family Collection since 1991. Though bidding was relatively thin, it easily eclipsed the record set at Christie's last May when Gwynn from 1982 sold for $2.8 million. It sold to the L.A. based mega-collector and art patron Eli Broad who bid through his curator Joanne Heyler.
Unlike the relative obscurity of the 'other' Close painting in tonight's sale that featured John Roy, the artist's friend and fellow painter from the early '70's, Eric is none other than artist Eric Fischl, an art star of the 1980's, who Close captured on canvas in 1990. It too is grandly scaled at 100-by-84 inches. The mosaic-like portrait was painted barely two years after Close's debilitating spinal blood clot that left him partially paralyzed and is all the more remarkable for its scale and ambition. It was exhibited at the Pace Gallery in late 1991, along with other giant portraits of Close's artist fraternity, including Roy Lichtenstein, Cindy Sherman, Alex Katz and Francesco Clemente. The painting carried an undisclosed guarantee from Sotheby's and was one of three works offered from a private Midwest collection. It sold to Robert Mnuchin of Manhattan's blue chip C & M Arts.
|
||||||||||||||||||
Save to Del.icio.us
Digg this
